Honeywell RTH7600D 7 Day Touchscreen Programmable Thermostat

The Honeywell RTH7600D 7 Day Touchscreen Programmable Thermostat is a great value device. It retails on Amazon for less than $70. In nearly every aspect the Honeywell RTH7600D is similar to the more expensive Honeywell RTH8500D 7 Day Touchscreen Programmable Thermostat. There are only two differences between the two devices. Firstly, the Honeywell RTH7600D has a slightly smaller touchscreen interface and secondly, the Honeywell RTH7600D doesn’t have a vacation mode.

The great thing about Honeywell programmable thermostats is that they are virtually universally compatible and the Honeywell RTH7600D digital thermostat is no exception. It can handle heating only, cooling only, central air, 2 wire hydronics systems and gas. It can also regulate up to 2 stages of heating and cooling and heat pumps with auxiliary heat. And it can regulate the fan to better circulate the warm/cool air around a room. Like all Honeywell thermostats the Honeywell RTH7600D can be hardwired into the HVAC to draw its power from the mains supply. This eliminates the need for batteries.

Furthermore, the Honeywell RTH7600D has smart response or adaptive intelligent recovery as it is also called. This is a great feature that keeps track of the changing weather conditions and uses this information to pre-heat or pre-cool a room. Thus, at the start of a programmed period the room temperature is just as you want it. This feature takes the guesswork out of trying to set the HVAC to go off a few minutes before you wake up or get back from work. It is a function that greatly adds to the comfort of a home and also helps to make a home more energy efficient because it is more cost effective to slowly rise or lower the room temperature rather than having the HVAC working at full and then having to make further corrections.

Like all good programmable thermostats the Honeywell RTH7600D has a program slot for each day of the week and 4 periods per day. This is the industry standard for making sure that you can fit the heating and cooling in your house with your schedule. This prevents heating/cooling empty homes and also allows the user to take advantage of cheaper off-peak electricity.

Another great feature of the Honeywell RTH7600D is that it has auto change-over. This is a feature that detects the changing of the seasons and automatically switches between heating and cooling for you.

Other features include a filter change warning and a battery change warning. The display is a touchscreen which has Honeywell’s easy to understand intuitive, menu driven programming. The touchscreen is backlit. For added convenience the unit can be removed from the wall for armchair programming.

Another useful feature of the Honeywell RTH7600D is that it keeps real time and even keeps your settings after a power outage. The real time display also keeps track of daylight saving changes for you.

This thermostat has many reviews on Amazon – over 100. And the overwhelming response is positive. People with few exceptions found the Honeywell RTH7600D straight forward to install and easy to program. Reviewers are nearly unanimous in saying that the Honeywell RTH76500D does a good controlling the heating/cooling in a home.

The only issue that a number of people mentioned was the backlight. You have to press the touchscreen interface to activate the backlight. This means you also activate some change to your settings which you must then cancel. The backlight necessitates more than one touch.

Although not mentioned by reviewers, one possible drawback with the Honeywell RTH7600D is that it doesn't have a vacation mode. You have to change your programmed settings if you go away for a few days. If you want vacation mode you need to go to the next model up - the Honeywell RTH8500D 7 Day Touchscreen Programmable Thermostat.

Click Here to read the Amazon reviews of the Honeywell RTH7600D 7 Day Touchscreen Programmable Thermostat.

Like all Honeywell programmable thermostats the Honeywell RTH7600D is accurate to +/- 1°F. And the auto change-over function means that regardless of the season the heating or cooling will immediately come on to maintain the set-point temperature. Other programmable thermostats use swing control to allow the user to set up a range (normally within 2 or 4 degrees) within which the thermostat doesn’t activate the HVAC systems. This allows small fluctuations in room temperature to go without a response. The result is that the air-con, furnace etc. is not continually short cycling to keep up with these small changes in room temperature. Honeywell prefers to use another system that sets a limit on the number of cycles the heating/cooling does in an hour. This system works fine as long as you are not living in a very hot or very cold climate.

For people who want a touchscreen programmable thermostat but have a budget under $100 the Honeywell RTH7600D is a very attractive device. It has lots of great features and is guaranteed to help you make big reductions in your heating and cooling bills. The absence of a vacation mode and temporary hold is a minor inconvenience as it requires extra programming to get around not having thee features. The same is the case with the absence of a separate backlight button. If you are concerned about swing control it is worth looking at the Lux Products TX9000TS – a similar device that has swing control.

• 7 Day programming and 4 periods per day
• Smart response / Intelligent adaptive recovery
• Auto change-over
• Compatible with up to 2 stage heating and 2 stage cooling and heat pumps with auxiliary heat
• Can be powered from HVAC power supply (no need for batteries)
• Touchscreen programming
• 1 Year Warranty
• Energy Star approved
• Accurate to within 1 degree Fahrenheit
• Keeps settings even after power outage
• Temporary hold
• Filter change and battery warning
• Can cycle the fan
• Armchair programming
• Under $100